Maria, Arturo, and I haul ass down the stairs as Rotters begin clawing out the bottom end of the stairwell doors. As we run, I notice more Rotters falling down the stairwell. They must have broken in on the higher floors. In the rush, I catch Arturo placing one of his hands on the wall as he's running. What's the deal with that?
Despite having spent the last few minutes in excruciating pain, Arturo is sprinting down the stairs like it's nothing, blasting Rotters away with the shotgun . . . my shotgun! He quickly runs out of ammo and lets out a grunt directed at Maria, who then unslings her assault rifle and tosses it to him. Arturo catches the Riffle with both his hands and just keeps shooting, business as usual.
Not sure how they can be so calm, these Rotters all have a purple haze. I know that those covered in the purple haze can hurt Arturo and Maria, yet they are acting like everything is business as usual- though, for Arturo and I, it kind of is.
After what feels like the longest morning jog ever, we finally make it down to the third floor and the two Admins run straight through the door. Yes, you read that right, I said 'through'. As in, they ran into the door and passed through it like ghosts.
Thinking they would open the door before I get there, my momentum causes me to run face-first into it, knocking me on my ass, with a large group of Rotters on my tail.
Of all the ways to die, why do I have to go in the most humiliating way possible? Just before the horde of Rotters can tear me apart, I feel a yank from behind, and suddenly I'm pulled out of the stairwell, going through the metal door.
Trying to grasp my current situation, I turn around to see Maria, who lets go of my brown trench coat as soon as I look at her and walks away without saying anything.
"Thanks for the save," I tell Maria but she still ignores me. Not sure what her issue is.
Scanning around the third floor, I notice the hallway is empty, with all the doors except three in the middle on the right side having been removed. Aside from the three of us, there is one other person in the hallway.
It's an ordinary-looking man of average height, wearing camouflage pants, a green T-shirt under a black bulletproof vest, brown boots, and a green beret. In short, the typical soldier. It almost makes me wonder if he is a person or simply a construct created by Arturo to guard whatever is behind the door. Didn't they mention something about an armory?
As I look around the room, still sitting down, I hear a loud laugh echoing throughout the barren hallway. Of course, it's Arturo, leaning on a small section of wall between two of the three doors on the hall’s right side. He has a large, shit-eating grin on his face while still clutching his injured arm.
Maria, startled, shouts in an irritated tone:
“What?”
Arturo, trying to hold his laughter back, explains:
Oh, Maria-san! Why do you keep saving this guy’s poor ass? Are you just that much of a bleeding heart? Or . . .”
The expression on his face then turns into a sly grin like he’s about to drop the punch line:
“You got feelings for him?”
After finishing his question, his sly grin turns big and toothy and he starts laughing again. Honestly, I don’t see how all this is a joke to him. But I have also been wondering why she keeps bailing me out.
First convincing the Azure Guererros not to kill me, and now pulling my ass out of the proverbial frying pan. What does she want from me?
Maria tries her best to ignore Arturo, only looking away from him. Arturo soon stops laughing. Pushing himself away from the wall and clutching his arm, he says:
“Let’s get moving.”
As I stand up, I look down at my feet and shake them a couple of times. Hey, I need to make sure whatever ghost/transparency effect Maria used on me doesn't have any side effects. I can never be too careful with.... anything really.
As I look down, my eyes notice something strange about the door; there are no scratch marks on it and the bottom hasn't been torn through. Add to that how empty the hall is and Maria and Arturo's ghost act and something seems off- Wait a minute! I remembered Arturo running his hand across the wall as we were trying to get away. That's gotta be how-
"Hey! I know you must have a ton of questions but those explanations need to wait! Let's go!" Maria suddenly nags me as I'm putting the pieces together. Though not that any of that matters right now.
When the three of us get to the door, the soldier goes stiff, salutes Arturo, and says:
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“Chief Santana, sir!”
“At ease, Gomer,” Arturo replies as he opens the door.
Gomer, huh? I understand that reference, but the question is, does Arturo know it too? If so, is the reference a nod to the old movie or the even-older TV show? If it’s the movie, then things might get messed up-
Dumb ass! Now’s not the time to be thinking about whether the all-powerful computer program knows the difference between a TV show and a movie!
As Arturo walks into the room, he looks back at Gomer, motions to Maria and me, and tells him:
“These two are with me.”
Gomer responds:
“Okay, sir!”
As I walk into the room with Maria, I notice a faint purple haze forming around Gomer. I walk up to Arturo to inform him of what I’ve just seen.
As I say his name to get his attention, he tells me, without looking in my direction:
“Yeah, I saw it too. We need to hurry.”
I can’t see the look in his eyes, but I can tell from the tone in his voice, today has not been a good day for him. That’s the price of having company. I get that he wants a gang to fit into the environment, but he seems to have made the same mistake I did; he’s gotten attached. The pain of losing those attachments is worse than getting shot because at least bullet wounds heal.
I can tell that this “armory” is a converted hotel room when we walk past a bathroom and a closet while heading toward the main area of the room. Before we step into the main area, Arturo flips on the light switch, since the room has been pitch-black.
The main room itself is wide- presumably taking up the space of three rooms, given the size- with shelves of machine guns, rifles, shotguns, handguns, and explosives lining the entire room. There are even knives hanging on both the right and left walls, with dressers underneath the knives.
Despite the space seemly taking up three rooms, there is only one hallway and door to enter and exit. But there are three doors outside and only one guard. I notice that there are no windows here unlike the rest of the rooms, and this room is making my head explode.
What is the point of even keeping the other two doors? Before my mind can thoroughly go through this insane, abstract rabbit hole, I hear Arturo giving Maria and I instructions:
“All right, people, pick up anything you need in about five minutes. After that, we move.”
After being given our orders, we all split up and search the room. Honestly, not sure why Arturo would trust me enough to leave me alone in a room full of guns.
Maybe he thinks we need each other to get out of this because I can’t imagine that he doesn’t think I can hurt him. Not that I would try anything. Admin or not, injured or not, I don't think I can take him out first. And right now, I don't feel like testing my luck more than I need to.
As I stand in the middle of the shotgun shelf, deep in thought, I feel a nudge at my back, which causes me to jump away in shock. I turn around and see Arturo, an assault rifle slung on his shoulder, holding my sawed-off in his left hand, his injured arm covered in hastily done cloth bandages.
Holding back his laughter and mimicking a stern expression on his face, he says:
“Here’s your piece back. Make sure not to lose it next time.”
Oh, I see how this is. Just like I thought. He just needs another guy with a gun as insurance. At least I get the feeling that he trusts me halfway now.
“Though honestly, that gun’s a piece of caca, I’d recommend swapping it out while you’re here,” Arturo advises me before walking away.
Nice advice, but I think I’ll keep it around. I’ve had this bad boy for as long as I can remember, so why let it go now? I do need to grab some ammo . . . and a couple of grenades, and then get the hell out of here.
Before going to the cabinet on the right end of the armory, I stuff four grenades into my coat- two for each pocket. Good thing the manga volumes are small enough to make room.
When I open the drawer, I find it completely filled with ammo for many types of guns—all in a messy, unorganized pile. And here I thought these guys were some kind of well-organized machine. Wouldn't Arturo have some sort of auto-organization power or something? In frustration, I let out an annoyed sigh and start digging into the mess to find ammo for a shotgun.
As I start looking through the ammo pile, I notice a faint green glow coming from the dresser's bottom. My frustration giving way to curiosity, I take the ammo out of the drawer, and the light becomes brighter, despite being covered up by the wooden bottom of the drawer.
I reach into the drawer, pry up the bottom, and find a small greenish-blue ball, with a yellow computer code orbiting it. As I lift the ball out of the drawer, I turn around to see Arturo and Maria standing behind me, Arturo looking pissed off.
Before he can speak, I put my hands behind my back like a kid trying to hide that he has just stolen a cookie from the jar.
Arturo then shouts:
“What the hell are you doing?”
Before I can even give him a bullshit answer, the ball in my right hand reacts to the shotgun in my left hand, causing a yellow light to erupt behind me.
Wondering what the hell has just happened, I pull my hands away from my back and see that the ball has disappeared and is replaced with a pendant containing the picture of a man, a woman, and a child who I am assuming is their daughter. My shotgun now has a green aura around it, with yellow computer code orbiting it.
While I am still trying to figure out what the hell has just happened, Arturo aims his assault rifle at me—his emotionless facade now completely gone—and shouts:
“You stupid pendejo! Now you've done it!”